The presence of the Lord was with West Angeles on Resurrection Sunday 2016!

Presiding Bishop Charles Edward Blake, Sr. welcomed the congregants to the Easter service and presentation, thanking God with exuberance and praise.

“Your savior is alive! We are praising the Resurrection! He loved you to the degree that He would give His life for your salvation. If anyone has something to celebrate, it’s us – for the Lord Jesus! Come on, give Him praise!”

West Angeles member and actor Chaz Shepard, soulful Dove Award-winning gospel singer Pastor Wess Morgan, and celebrated international classical artist Audrey DuBois Harris were part of the magnificent, dramatic and musical presentation conducted by the Church of God In Christ’s International Minister of Music Dr. Judith Christie McAlister, who recently returned to West Angeles to lead its music ministry.

Bishop Blake’s moving Resurrection Sunday sermon was inspired by John 20:24-29, where Jesus appears to the disciple Thomas.

“How vivid is the image of resurrection?” asked Bishop Blake. He continued in prayer, “Thank you Jesus, that you loved us enough to give your life for us. Thank you for salvation, thank you for eternal life. Let us never ever again be the same, in Jesus name.”

“The starting point of believers’ knowledge of God…is not the Old Testament, it is Jesus Christ” – Presiding Bishop Charles Edward Blake, Sr.

“Without Jesus, we would probably not be aware of, or even read, the Old Testament.”

“Before Jesus, the Jewish faith was exactly that: the Jewish faith.”

“Most people believed in some kind of God, but they just didn’t know what God was really like.”

“Without the life of Jesus’ word, the New Testament would not have become the basis for the world’s great and dominant religions.”

“Without Jesus the Old Testament would have been of little interest to those of us who are not Jewish people.”

“Jesus told us about God because Jesus is God.”

“If Jesus had not arisen form the dead, He would not have impacted the world as He has.”

“If He had not arisen from the dead, we would not have believed that He is God. He would not have the significance for us that He has.”

“And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile. You are still in your sins.” 1 Corinthians 15:17

“There are few, if any, fears that are greater than the fear of death.”

“(American psychologist) Abraham Maslow articulated what he thought was the hierarchy of human need, that the physiological need for safety, life, and security are at the very basis of man’s need structure.”

“Death for mankind is a fearful thing.”

“Death is the ultimate finishing of life. One of the reasons men turn to Jesus is because Jesus promises abundant life.”

“’I come that you might have life.’ That promise would seem empty if Jesus, who promises us life, did not come back to life Himself.”

“Where there is life, there’s hope.”

“Nobody enjoys death. Nobody wants death. But death for the believer is not the terror it once was because Jesus destroyed the power of Satan and the rule of Satan over our lives through death.”

“The fear of death keeps men in bondage.”

“We have the now. We know the now…and this seems to us to be more real than anything else.”

“Those of us who know Jesus need not be confronted by confusion or apprehension.”

“The resurrection of Jesus is the most miraculous and spectacular event in the history of mankind.”

“Anybody who can defeat death…I want to know Him.”

“The resurrection of Jesus is the most miraculous and spectacular event in the history of mankind.” – Presiding Bishop Charles Edward Blake, Sr.

“In all of history, no one can make the claim that Jesus made.”

“Let the church proclaim it: ‘Our Lord is alive!’”

“The resurrection was not just for the spirit of man but for the body of man also, which would also one day be resurrected.”

“Our loving Lord defeated death, and then He came back to let us know that the best part of life is on the other side of the grave.”

“The word ‘Lord’ means ‘owner’; the word ‘Lord’ means ‘master.’ So one who makes Christ his Lord considers Jesus to be his owner his master, and himself a slave of Jesus.”

“One who makes Jesus his Lord puts himself entirely in the hands of Jesus Christ.”

“Jesus is Lord by love.”

“Nothing on earth is worth our relationship with Jesus.”

“Jesus is Lord of the dead and Lord of the living.”

“At the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess that He is Lord of all.”